Local frozen daiquiri bar CC’s Daiquiris has closed, one year after Montgomery suspended the downtown open container ordinance that the business was built around.

CC’s Daiquiris posted a note on its Facebook page and taped a message on the door of its 19 Commerce St. spot saying it’s closed “until further notice” and thanking customers for their support.

Candy Capel opened CC’s Daiquiris there in October 2017, selling New Orleans-style frozen drinks to the downtown crowds in carry-away containers. Three months later, the city stopped allowing people to carry open alcohol containers on the streets of downtown.

Capel wrote a letter to the Montgomery Advertiser early last year accusing the city of “murdering my business” with the move. She said revenue took “a nosedive” after the ban was enacted at the beginning of 2018.

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Owner Candy Capel, left, and manager Qiana James serve up the first drink at CC's Daiquiris in Montgomery.(Photo: Brad Harper / Advertiser)

“I built my business based on this (open container ordinance),” she said last year. “Now you’re snatching the rug out from under me at halftime.”

Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said the city made the change after reports of nearby apartments losing “20 to 40 percent” of their tenants, as well as noise and loitering complaints. “I’ve known Candy forever. We wouldn’t do anything to purposely hurt her,” Strange said after the change. “But I can’t let one business lose downtown and, frankly, that’s the direction we were going.”

Momentum for the street drinking ban built among some business owners after a brawl outside competing daiquiri bar Wet Willie’s was filmed and went viral. Wet Willie’s, which is part of a national chain, remains open at 79 Commerce St., about a block away from CC’s Daiquiris.

A group of young people who started fighting outside several entertainment district establishments was caught on camera.
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Capel met with Strange in the months after the ban was announced. But at a May 2018 meeting of the Downtown Business Association, Strange said he had heard “10 to one” support for the ban.

Sous La Terre and SLT Package Store owner George Trawick suggested at the meeting that downtown businesses could "chip in a little more" for extra police presence to reinstate the open container ordinance. He said the ban means the city isn't on an even playing field with other tourist destinations that have vibrant downtowns.

"The Chamber of Commerce is going out and recruiting them — 'Come on to Montgomery. Have a good time,'" Trawick said. "When they get here, we slap the cuffs on them and say, 'No, you can't walk around.' But they can do it everywhere else."